Identity
by skycloud86
Summary: Post S3, and there's something unusual about someone. AU with a few OCs.
1. Lost In Translation

_**A/N - This story starts around 3pm after Day Three. Changes to the story are that Nina has not been killed, and Tony has not been arrested. Also, the story was made up as I wrote it – it's based on an idea that the Nina who killed Jack's wife etc was not the Nina he had seen as a friend. A future fanfiction may use a similar idea.**_

Now that the threat was over, there was one last thing to do before CTU could finally finish off the mission – transport Nina to Division. The agents who were still left looked at Nina as she was escorted through the bullpen and towards the exit.

Alex looked at Nina as she passed by and noticed that there were subtle differences in her appearance, and as he examined her, he began to contemplate the idea that he was not looking at his sister at all. Asking the guards that were escorting her to stop for a moment, before walking closer to her, he got her attention and decided to find out for sure.

"Do you understand what I am saying?," Alex asked her in Ukrainian, the mother tongue of their maternal grandparents and a language both were fluent in. However, Nina just seemed confused, as did everyone else in CTU. Alex was now almost certain that this Nina was an imposter, but decided to give her one more chance.

"What language am I speaking in?," Alex asked once more in Ukrainian, but Nina's confusion was evident. Nodding, Alex turned to Jack.

"We're going to need a DNA test for her, Jack. This woman is not Nina Myers," Alex announced, and Nina looked at him, startled.

"Alexander, I'm Nina," Nina spoke, before Alex turned around and looked at the woman.

"Maybe you're a Nina, but you aren't my sister. I don't know what they've done to you, but I think they're using you in Nina's place," Alex replied, but Nina shook her head, before looking down.

"Besides, you just called me Alexander, and Nina hasn't called me that since we were little," Alex informed her, and Nina nodded slowly, before lifting her head up.

"They gave me plastic surgery, and afterwards they told me all about your sister. I don't know where she is, and I've never met her," Nina replied, but her voice was different - unlike the Midwestern accent that Nina had, she had a more Southern accent more like that of someone from Georgia. Jack walked up to her and examined the woman closely.

"When was this?," Jack asked, unsure of whether to believe her or not. After all, he knew what Nina Myers was like.

"In 2001, Jack. They said they took her a few months after they kidnapped me. I may be the woman who killed your wife, but I'm not your friend, and I'm not his sister," Nina replied, and Jack stared at her in disbelief.

"2001? So you replaced Nina a few months before you were arrested?," Alex asked,

"Yes. According to them they took Nina in early January 2001. My name is Sarah Aylesworth, I was born February 16th, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia," Nina replied, and Chloe checked the information on her computer.

"She's telling the truth, Jack. There's a missing persons report from 2000 regarding a Sarah Aylesworth from Georgia," Chloe informed him, and Jack looked at Sarah.

"Why did you kill my wife? Why not give yourself up so you could tell us this back then?," Jack asked, and Sarah couldn't look back at him.

"I'm sorry, but they would have killed me, and probably would have killed Nina as well," Sarah spoke, and a solitary tear ran down her cheek, before Jack gently wiped it off.

"Do you know where Nina is? Is she even still alive?," Jack asked, his voice softer and quieter.

"No, but I can tell you where they took me. They kept me in a building in some Serbian town, I know because I saw a sign. Say-jee-kar or something, I don't know how to pronounce it," Sarah replied, her head back up but still looking at no one in particular.

"Zajecar, it's in the east of the country," Alex informed them, and Jack began to think for a moment.

"I think Drazen had a base in that city. Chloe, can you find any intelligence that links Drazen to Zajecar?," Jack asked, before turning back to Sarah.

"I can't let you walk away, but I can make it so you can get some sort of deal, if you help us find Nina and bring down these people, OK?," Jack asked her, and she nodded in agreement.

"Jack, I've found an abandoned farm that once belonged to Victor Drazen on the eastern outskirts of Zajecar," Chloe announced as she looked at her screen.

A few hours later, with Sarah back in a holding room, Jack and Alex were waiting anxiously for the results of the DNA test. As Chloe came out of Medical with a piece of paper in her hands, she walked up to the pair.

"DNA testing has confirmed it, the woman in the holding rooms is Sarah Aylesworth. Her family has been contacted," Chloe informed them. Thanking her, Jack looked at the piece of paper she had just handed to him.

"Have you told Kim yet?," Alex asked. He himself had the job of telling Tony, and he had reacted badly, which wasn't surprising as it meant that Sarah was the woman he had been in love with. Alex had asked him to visit Sarah sometime and talk to her.

"No, it's not something I want to rush into. Besides, she's got Chase to worry about right now. As far as she knows, her mother's killer is in custody," Jack replied, before he became pensive, as if something was bothering him.

"If she's right about when she was swapped with Nina, then it was Nina who gave Wald those schematics six months before her arrest," Jack spoke, hoping that Nina wasn't truly corrupt anyway.

"Maybe it wasn't. I mean, Sarah could be wrong about the dates. According to the missing persons report, she went missing in October of 2000, which could mean that she was the one who sold the information," Alex replied, trying to find an explanation for the mystery.

"Perhaps, we should ask her. You go in and talk to her, I'll watch from the surveillance room," Jack told him, and Alex nodded.

Sarah was alone in Holding Room 1. It was where she had been taken when she was first arrested, when she had been brought back to CTU to help stop the nuke, and now it was where she was waiting to help the very organisation she had betrayed and attacked find the woman she had replaced all those years ago. She had not wanted to kill anyone, and had been able to justify most of her murders by remembering that they were terrorists or federal agents, and not civilians, but this all had to change when she killed Teri Bauer. That was something she knew she would never forgive herself for. Hearing the door, she looked up and saw the man she knew as Alex, the man she was supposed to call her brother. The first time she had seen him, she realised that the plastic surgery must have been quite accurate, as he neither suspected anything was wrong nor did she look anything other than exactly like Nina.

"We've confirmed your identity, Sarah, and we've informed your family that you are at CTU Los Angeles," Alex informed her, and she nodded slightly in reply.

"I wanted to show you this," Alex continued, and he placed a photograph of Nina on the table close to Sarah. Examining the photograph, Sarah traced a finger around her face as if she were looking in a mirror.

"I hope she's going to be OK," Sarah spoke as she placed the photograph back onto the table. Nodding before sitting down, Alex looked at her.

"It was Ukrainian by the way, that language I was speaking earlier. My sister and me, we're partly Ukrainian and know the language fluently," Alex said, before placing more photographs on the table, this time of Wald and his group.

"You recognise any of these men, Sarah?," Alex asked, watching Sarah's face closely for any guilty reaction, and he found what he was looking for.

"No, I've never seen them before in my life," Sarah replied, her voice calm. Alex looked at her for a second before speaking.

"You sure? Never seen any of these men before in your life?," Alex told her, and she shook her head, hoping that he would change the subject.

"Why are you lying, Sarah?," Alex asked, his voice becoming angry, and Sarah looked at him with widened eyes.

"I'm not, I'm telling the truth!," Sarah spoke, her voice panicky.

"You're lying! This picture was taken a few months before you were arrested, Sarah, and it's you!," Alex said, his voice loud and even angrier than before. Jack, who was watching behind the mirror, wondered if he should intervene. Knocking on the mirror slightly, he watched as Alex turned around, before standing up and walking out of the interrogation room.

"Alex, don't you think you're being a little hard on her?," Jack asked him, but Alex just scoffed at him.

"Look, if she was the person who gave Wald those documents, that proves that Nina is totally innocent of everything, Jack!," Alex replied. Jack looked at him and sighed. He too wanted Nina to be innocent, but he knew that it was plausible that Nina had sold the information to Wald before she was kidnapped.

"Alex, for now let's assume that it was Sarah and sort this all out later. Right now, we need to find Nina," Jack told him.

"Fine," Alex replied, before returning to the interrogation room.

"Look, I'm sorry about that, Sarah, it's just been a stressful couple of days," Alex spoke as he sat down , and Sarah nodded. She knew why he was angry, that if the woman in the picture wasn't her, then it would have been Nina.

"It's OK. What else do you want to know?," Sarah asked, and Alex cleared his throat.

"Why did they choose you to replace Nina? I've seen a photograph of you from the missing persons report, but you looked nothing like her," Alex enquired.

"I have no idea, although I am an actress, so I guess that helped them. The night I was kidnapped, I noticed a blue van following me, and so I tried to get home quickly. They just jumped out of the van, grabbed me and the next thing I know I'm in a car on a road in Serbia," Sarah replied, her voice breaking and her eyes welling.

"Are you feeling OK, Sarah? We can have a break if you feel you need it," Alex asked, but Sarah shook her head.

"I'm fine, I know it's all over now. Look, I need to help CTU find Nina, not just because it'll help cut my jail time or anything, but because I've stolen her life, her identity and I need to give it back to her," Sarah replied.


	2. Journeys In The Balkan Region

_**A few days later**_

**12.00pm, Zajecar, Serbia**

The Serbian government had been more than happy to assist CTU in finding Nina, and as the government helicopter landed in the middle of the former Drazen estate on the outskirts of the city, Alex looked out at the derelict buildings that were strewn all over the land. He knew that if Nina was here, she would most likely be dead, and it would be a massive task to find her remains. As he, Jack and Sarah climbed out of the helicopter, Jack noticed a man walking towards him. Dark-haired, with deep set brown eyes and a tanned complexion, he was a SIA agent, a federal agent of Serbia.

"Welcome to Zajecar, agents. My name is Misha Mjovic," the man spoke in clear English as he reached the trio.

"I'm Jack Bauer, this is Alex Myers and Sarah Aylesworth," Jack informed Misha as the four walked towards the largest building on the farm, a still fairly impressive but ancient and decaying mansion. As they walked down the dirt path towards the house, Sarah shivered.

"I remember this place, this is where they took me," Sarah spoke. She looked up at the broken windows of the house and tried not to remember.

"We've had our agents and the local police search this estate for any sign of your missing CTU agent, but we've had no luck," Misha spoke as they reached the house. Forcing open the dusty door, Misha walked inside, and the three Americans followed.

"We did find something, though, and I think you should take a look at this," Misha spoke as he walked towards an empty bookcase. Grabbing it, he allowed it to crash to the floor, and on the floor where the bookcase had stood was a trapdoor. As Misha opened it, the door creaked ominously.

As they climbed down the rotting but sturdy ladder to the cellar, Misha turned on a torch and pointed it at the opposite wall. There, a set of chains hung, and it was obvious that someone had been kept prisoner in the room.

"We found this room only by chance. We've tried to find out who was kept down here, but the chains are small enough to fit your agent's wrists according to the description CTU gave us of her," Misha explained.

"Do you know how long the person was probably kept down here?," Alex asked, trying not to picture Nina chained helplessly to the wall, trying hard to survive. Misha looked at him, then at the wall.

"We don't, but this building was first abandoned in early 2002, shortly after Victor Drazen's death, so if it was your agent who was kept in here, she could have been in this room for over a year," Misha replied.

**12.45pm, Zajecar, Serbia**

As the group walked towards the helicopter, Misha received a phone call. Taking it, he spoke in Serbian for a few moments, before ending the call, then looking at the three Americans with a smile.

"There's a prisoner in the jail at Nis who worked for the Drazens here in Zajecar, a man called Andre Luminovic. He should be able to tell us something," Misha spoke as they reached the helicopter.

"I hope so, Misha," Jack replied. He just wanted to see Nina again, not the one he had seen for years as an enemy and a traitor, but as a friend.

**3.10pm, Nis, Serbia**

As the helicopter landed close to the prison in Nis and the group got out, a man walked up to the group and began talking in Serbian to Sarah, who was confused.

"What is he saying?," Jack enquired. His Serbian was rusty, and even then it was a slightly different dialect to the one used in this part of the country.

"He's asking when I was released from the mental hospital in Zajecar," Sarah replied, and it didn't take long for the four to come to a quick conclusion.

"Sir, was there a woman who looks exactly like me in the hospital? An American woman, by any chance?," Sarah asked in Serbian, and the man nodded.

"Yes, at least there was when I worked there, but I moved to Nis a couple of years ago," the man replied.

"Looks like we got to go back there then!," Jack announced, and as they climbed back into the helicopter, Sarah thanked the man.

**4.30pm, Mental Hospital, Zajecar, Serbia**

Now that they had a concrete lead at last, they walked into the hospital, which was poorly lit, and the shadows inside were long.

"Hello miss, I am Agent Mjovic, SIA. These three are American agents looking for a missing American federal agent. We were told that an American woman is being kept here?," Misha asked the blonde woman receptionist in Serbian, and as she nodded her head, he pointed at Sarah.

"Does she look like her?," Misha asked, and the receptionist, Martina according to her name tag, looked at Sarah. After a few minutes she nodded.

"Yes, she's known as Jelena. Room 24a," Martina replied in Serbian, and both Alex and Jack noticed the name. It was the codename that Sarah had used when she had communicated with the Drazens. As Martina gave Misha the directions, Alex looked at Sarah gratefully.

"It's this way," Misha informed them in English, and as they walked down the corridor where they would find Nina's room, all four of them were hoping to find Nina behind the door. The receptionist had given Misha the key to the room, and as he unlocked the door, they could hear cries in Serbian and English coming from inside.

"Please, no more! I just want to go home!," Nina yelled as the door was opened. Her dark hair was much longer than it had been, and her body was extremely skinny. Looking up at Misha, she was unsure what he wanted.

"Ms Myers? My name is Misha Mjovic, I have some people here to see you," Misha spoke in English, which shocked and worried Nina, especially as he used her surname, which she had not heard for years. As Alex and Jack walked in, Nina recognised them instantly, and ran towards them. Embracing her brother tightly, she began to sob.

"It's OK, Nina, it's over," Alex whispered to her. As she looked up, she noticed Sarah and took a step back in surprise.

"She looks like me! What's going on?," Nina spoke, her voice small and frightened. Sarah walked into the room, but didn't go too close to Nina.

"My name is Sarah Aylesworth. The Drazens kidnapped me, made me look like you and then used information about you to allow me to replace you at CTU," Sarah replied, and Nina walked up to her. Tracing a bony, pale finger around the younger woman's face, she realised why she had been abducted.

"Why? What is so important about me?," Nina asked. All she knew about the Drazens was that they were the target of some operation Jack had been involved with in Serbia the year she had been kidnapped.

"They wanted to get revenge on Jack, they nearly killed him, the Presi-, I mean, Senator Palmer. They didn't succeed, but I was found out, and I... I killed Teri Bauer," Sarah spoke, her eyes welling up as she admitted her crime to Nina, who was looking with shock at her.

"You killed Teri? Why?," Nina asked, her voice breaking. She knew how much Jack had loved his wife, as well as the fact that they had a young daughter.

"I had to remove anything, or anyone, who could trace me to where I was going," Sarah explained, and Nina could see the look of anger rising in Jack's eyes, and wondered just how he had coped.

"Nina, the day you were arrested, it was the first day I worked at CTU Los Angeles. I transferred to be closer to you," Alex informed her.

"How many years has it been since I was taken?," Nina asked.

"You were kidnapped in October 2001, so it's been almost five years, Nina," Alex told her, and Nina was shocked. Although the days and nights had been painfully slow, she hadn't thought it would have been as long as five years.

"If it's alright with you, I would like to go home now," Nina spoke, a small smile growing on her face.


	3. Return To Los Angeles

_**Another few days later**_

**2.45pm, CTU Los Angeles**

As a nervous Nina walked into CTU for the first time, she noticed just how different the place looked. She had been told of all the events that had occurred since her abduction, and she had mourned, laughed and cried as she was told of what had happened. One of the first people she noticed was Tony, who was looking at her unsure of how he should react to her.

"Hello, Tony, it's nice to see you again," Nina spoke, and she held out her hand, which Tony looked at apprehensively for a second or two, before taking it in his hand. Looking into her eyes, he was sure that this was the Nina he had once known. Nina noticed a strange woman approaching them, and asked Tony who she was.

"Nina, this is Michelle Dessler, she's Chief of Staff, and my wife," Tony replied, a huge grin on his face. Nina smiled at Michelle and the pair embraced warmly.

"It's nice to meet you, Michelle," Nina told her. Suddenly, a guard came around the corner from the holding rooms escorting Sarah towards the exit. Nina walked up to them and asked to speak to Sarah.

"Thank you for helping find me, Sarah, and I'm glad that the President pardoned you. I'm sorry for everything that happened," Nina spoke.

"It's OK, Nina. I want to go back to Georgia and live my life," Sarah replied. She still looked like Nina, although CTU had been able to give her clear contacts to replace the green ones that had covered her natural grey eyes.

Meanwhile, Kim was looking at Nina and Sarah with mixed emotions. She wasn't sure if she could accept the fact that her mother's killer had been pardoned yet again, but she was glad that Nina had been found safe and well. It would take her, as well as Jack, Alex and Tony, some time to eventually separate Nina and the acts that were committed by Sarah posing as Nina, but it would happen. As Sarah was led out of CTU for the last time, Kim smiled as Nina noticed her. Approaching her, Nina smiled sadly at the young woman.

"I'm sorry about your mother, Kim," Nina spoke. She had been horrified to hear of the events of Teri's last day alive, and had promised Jack that she had no involvement with anything illegal, and as Sarah had confessed to being in Wald's photographs, there was nothing to link her to any terrorist group or activity.

"I'm sorry that you were kept in a mental hospital thousands of miles from home for years, Nina. I hope you're OK," Kim asked, and Nina nodded slightly. Although it would be some time before she would be back to normal, and even longer before she could return to work at CTU, she already felt far better than she had felt in years.

**2.50pm, Oval Office, White House, Washington DC**

President Palmer had just finished talking to Jack Bauer on the phone, and he was satisfied with the recent events. He had been glad that an American agent had been released and brought back home to safety, and he was glad that Jack Bauer had accepted his pardoning of Sarah Aylesworth. Sure, he knew that Jack hated Sarah for what she had done to him, his family and other CTU agents, but he also knew that Sarah had not been fully responsible for her actions.

A knock on the door was heard, and David asked the person to enter, and in came his son, Keith Palmer. Gesturing to his son to sit down, he looked at the young man with saddened eyes.

"I've organised the funeral in Maryland, Keith. I was hoping you could say a few words in memory of your mother?," David asked. The divorce had been hard on his son and daughter, but they had managed to maintain good and close relationships with both of their parents, and when they had been told of their mother's death, they had quickly come to Washington to be there for their father when he returned from California.

"Sure, Dad, I'll be honoured," Keith replied. Now in his late twenties, Keith was a rising star in the Democratic Party, and was tipped to be a future Senator, although he had publicly ruled out any campaigns to run for President. His sister was not politically active, but was still a rising star in her own field, as a singer. The young woman's talent was known in many English-speaking countries, and her songs were often played on radio stations and in clubs across the nations.

**3.00pm, CTU Los Angeles**

Jack had arrived at CTU, and he was hoping to speak with Nina alone for a few moments. As the pair walked into the conference room, Jack looked at his old friend with happiness.

"Nina, I just want to say that I want you to come back to CTU some time. I miss having you around, miss working with you," Jack spoke, and Nina smiled.

"Jack, I want to come back as much as you want me to, and I know it'll happen. I just hope you can still see me as the Nina I was, instead of the Nina that Sarah was," Nina replied.

"There was one other thing, Nina, and I hope I'm right about this," Jack asked, and Nina looked confused as Jack leaned in closer, and as he kissed her, Nina found herself kissing him back. The passionate kiss lasted for some minutes until they broke apart.

"I think you are, Jack," Nina said, looking straight into his eyes.


End file.
